Transfer Step 4 - Exploring Majors

How do you choose a major? 

Choosing a possible major or field of study will help you narrow down choices for transfer colleges and help you pick courses that meet a major’s requirements.  Often it's difficult to know what you'll want to do as a career when you're a student in college.  Fortunately, there are some good ways to explore majors while you're here. 

Take courses to explore majors.  

"Introduction" courses are designed to present an overview of subject areas and often discuss careers opportunities within those fields. BA 101 Introduction to Business, PY 102 Introduction to Psychology, etc.

Look at typical careers associated with specific majors:  

What Can I Do with a Major In? UNC - Wilmington

Match Majors to Careers Florida State University

What College Majors Match Your Personality? from About.com 

Choosing a Major The University of Washington, Seattle

Take Montgomery College's DS 103, Career Development course to learn the process of career planning.  Students take career interest inventories to match your skills and interests to specific career areas and investigate careers in depth.  DS 103 is offered on all three campuses and as a Distance Learning on-line course.

DS 103  Career Development - 2 credits
Course Description:    Teaches how to plan, establish, or change a career. Includes process of establishing or implementing career goals; assessment of values, interests, and skills plus their relationship to occupations; analysis of labor market needs; identification of employers and sources of occupation information; and means of securing employment (proposals, resumes, applications, and job interviews). One hour lecture/discussion each week.

Use career exploration sites on the Web:  

Montgomery College's Steps to Career Planning, an ON-LINE CAREER PLANNING WORKSHOP 

Look at the actual course requirements for each major

Can you picture yourself taking/enjoying/succeeding in classes required for this field?

Advising by Major Pages

• Review the junior and senior-level (300 & 400-level) classes for a particular major - scan four-year college catalogs to do this.

Explore Experiential Learning

Nothing is better than throwing yourself into the work environment that you're considering.  This can be done through internships, volunteering, summer or part time jobs, study abroad or service learning opportunities. 

Internships:

Internships allow you to do try a job like a regular employee, but with additional guidance.  Internship experience may help you get a job. Employers like to hire people with experience, and sometimes hire their most successful interns.

Internships are available to college students whose education and training may be appropriate for many jobs. Internships usually last several weeks to a few months. They may offer pay, school credit or both. 

Montgomery College Internship Opportunities 

Montgomery College Internship Directory - a listing of all MC opportunities

Montgomery College Collegewide Cooperative Education and Internship Program

Internships Advertised on E-Jobs - this service, open to all MC students, lists not only jobs but also internship opportunities for students.

Montgomery College Smithsonian Internships - An internship at the Smithsonian Institution through Montgomery College is an experience like no other! It is a prearranged, structured learning opportunity within a defined time frame. MC students in any discipline may apply for an internship.

Montgomery College Library of Congress are available to eligible students each summer.  Students with an interest in history and/or languages may find interesting summer opportunities in this program.

The Macklin Business Institute, Montgomery College, Rockville Campus.  The Macklin Business Institute offers an honors and mentoring program to sophomore-year business students. The college-wide program includes participation in business honors courses, a seminar each week, and mentoring by both a faculty member and a corporate executive. A business internship and scholarship support will also be available to students accepted into the Institute.

Conduct Your Own Search for an Internship

Use a search engine like Google to type in a variety of phrases to generate some possibilities.  For example, you might try "internships psychology Rockville" as a first attempt and see what pops up.  Vary it a bit each time to enlarge or reduce your scope - you might try "internships psychology MD", "internships psychology Maryland", "mental health internships Maryland" etc.

You can also search for internships by going to specific company websites and surfing around under "Employment" or "Human Resources."   For example, go to the National Institute of Standards and Technology site (find it by typing in the organization name in google ) and look in the Employment link.

Remember that many students go for big name companies and organizations, so competition for internships may be intense.  If you offer yourself as an intern at a smaller / local company, they may not have a formal intern program but they may be very willing to put you to work.  A smaller organization may be able to give you more responsibility in handling a variety of tasks. 

Have a resume ready before you begin your search.  Make use of MC's resume writing services to polish up your form.

Internship Listings on the Web:

Many companies & organizations list internship vacancies on the Web.  Remember that everyone else is searching this way, too, so actual opportunities may be limited.  This is a good way to get an idea of the types of internships that exist, and perhaps you can market yourself as an intern for a local company after you see the kinds of things that interns generally do.

Idealist. Non-profit organizations. Search by location and category of interest.    

Internweb.com 

WetFeet.com - Internship listings

Entrypoint - for students with disabilities

Rising Star Internships. Search by location and category of interest

Backdoorjobs.com 

Volunteering: 

Volunteering can provide three great benefits - an opportunity to explore a career field, an opportunity to build your resume for college, scholarship and employment applications, and the opportunity to contribute to your community and the world at large.  A good place to begin searching for placement begins with Montgomery County's Volunteer Center www.montgomerycountymd.gov/government/volunteer.html    Check out other possible listings in the MC Career Centers.

Other sites:  

www.volunteermatch.org 

www.idealist.org

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